The Joker vs IT
by Ferro 02
Summary: NOTE: do not look for The Dark Knight's realism here, this is a horror story about the amalgam of two mad souls.
1. Chapter 1

The lovely Arkham Asylum Wing D, 8 pm.

The Joker woke up as 2 heavily armed guards entered his cell.

"Up!", barked one of the guards, pointing his rifle towards the villain.

The Joker sighed and got up at an agitating slow pace.

"Face the wall! Put your hands on it!"

Joker did so and heard something getting wheeled in.

"Turn around! Meet your new roommate."

The Joker turned around and saw a big, grey iron box placed in the corner. Its inscription read;

"No 4207

Pennywise".

The box only had one window, just a few inches big, which was dark.

The Joker was intrigued.

"Pennywise... Sounds charming. Not the least worry of claustrophobia , eh?"

He turned to the guards; "Doesn't the boy get any airtime?"

"That box is impossible to get open so save it. And no, if He gets out, you're pretty much fucked.", replied the guard in a stern voice.

The guards left and the Joker examined the box from head to toe. The guard was right as the Joker found not a single spot to crack it open. Then the Joker jiggled the box a bit but not a single reaction could be seen or heard. Eventually, he got tired of it.

"You must have been a real naughty boy my friend. Ha...sweet dreams iron man!" and the Joker went to sleep. He started up in the middle of the night because he heard something what sounded like music. The Joker got up and saw white light coming out of the little window of the box. Joker went in for a closer look and peered inside. He only saw some white light at the bottom and balloons. Lots of balloons, in all the colors of the rainbow. Nothing else could be made out and the whole spectacle was accompanied by merry carnival music. Then a white flash seared his eyes and he fell on his back, screaming and writhing in pain as Pennywise took possession of him. The Joker felt a cold and deep darkness invading him which was infinitely more worse then his own personal madness but this New Dark was so...VORACIOUS! The Joker kept wailing as if something was sucking his blood out and replacing it with hot, molten lead. The Joker's eyes went black and he became silent. Pennywise had filled him with His Deadlights but some part of the Joker remained. The sadistic part.


	2. Chapter 2

On the screens of the surveillance cameras, Joker's screen went pitch black.

Several guards, armed to the teeth, went to check out the situation. They entered Joker's dark cell, switched on their flashlights and saw giant webs hanging from the walls and the ceiling. As they slowly advanced, it was as if the cell was much bigger then usual. Yet all they saw were those black webs. To their left, something started shining and they saw a small, wooden stage illuminated by white light with colourful balloons floating around. In the middle of the stage was a giant jack-in-the-box. The crank started moving on its own and merry-go-round music started playing. The guards, uneasy, tense, flicked the safeties off and pointed the guns at the oversized toy. The box opened and a figure started rising up. It was the Joker, dressed in a black tux, pale as death, a big red grin and eyes as black as the night.

"Get of that thing and put your hands up!", shouted a guard.

The Joker did nothing, said nothing just kept staring and grinning.

The guards' trigger fingers started to twitch.

" I repeat! Get of and put them up!"

Joker jumped from the stage towards the men who fired everything they had. The bullets seemed to go right through him as the Joker took a guards' skull and crushed it between his hands. Then he shoved his arm right through the chest of the second guard. One of the guards, ditched his gun, drew his baton and ran at the Joker. Joker took the punches as if he was struck with cotton candy and sliced the guards' throat open with his fingernails. The two remaining officers turned back and fled through the webs while the Joker watched them flee, silently, never letting go of that malevolent grin.

"What the fuck was that?"

"I don't know man! Keep running!"

Yet they didn't see a door or anything else, just those webs. Out of breath they looked around, not knowing where to aim or where to run.

"What the hell is happening!"

"Don't lose it. Hold on!"

Then...

"Ha..Ha...Haaa...Hahohaaa..."

The guards spun around and saw nothing. The laughter seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere.

"What do we do man? WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE GOING TO DO?

SHOOT THE BASTARD!

The guards fired in every direction, shredding only webs.

A voice appeared behind them, "Lookinnn for someonnnne?"

One guard exited the Jokers' cell and walked slowly away.

His commlink cracked and a distorted voice asked what the status was.

The guard replied in a calm voice, "Situation's contained...thanks to the sacrifice of the others." The reply went lost as the guard crushed the radio. A couple bodies later and the guard was out of the Asylum, still walking slowly, very sure of himself. He stopped in the shadow from a tree and the guards' dead flesh and uniform exploded, revealing its living operator, the possessed Joker. He plucked a piece of the guards' skin from his face and looked back at Arkham.

Fun times...

Pennywise, not feeling fulfilled, searched through the remainder of the Jokers' sick mind for some potential entertainment. In the darkness of the Jokers' mind, one gargantuan shadow stood at the center of it.

The shadow of a bat.

The voracious smile appeared on the Joker's face again as he made his way to Gotham.


	3. Chapter 3

The Batcave, 8.30 PM.

"I don't understand, Alfred...They wheel this boxed prisoner in, the Joker takes a peek, goes to sleep and then the screen goes black."

The Batman was puzzled.

"Now master Wayne it merely could have been a malfunction.", said Alfred in a soothing voice.

"Maybe so. But a minute later the whole asylum was in a state of emergency...I'm going down there to take a look...Keep the soup warm if you would, Alfred."

Gotham City, 8.30 PM.

Under a pale moon, The Joker sat on a rooftop as Pennywise whirled inside his brain.

_Attention...attention...I/we must attract the attention of The Bat...attention...kill something._

A scream was heard in a nearby alley and he flung himself downwards.

"Give us your money or I'll cut the bitch up!", said the gangster who held a knife to his wife as her husband Sam received blows to the stomach by the second gangster.

"Goddamnit! Give it or I start carvin'!...Mmmfff!". With a muffled gasp the armed gangster and the wife were dragged into the shadows.

"How about it boy? Get yer fucking wallet out!", hissed the remaining gangster as Sam went to the ground. Surprised at not hearing anymore movement behind him, the gangster turned around and saw nothing but a dark, deserted alley. "What the Hell?", he gasped.

"Ihi...ihiha...ahahohaaa...", came out of the impenetrable shadows.

Leaving Sam for what he is, the gangster yelled; "Who the fuck do you think you are? Show yourself motherfucker!" And The Joker stepped out from the shadows with a lick of blood on the corner of his mouth, grinning.

He did not stop grinning when he threw the skins of the wife and his buddy in front of the gangster.

Wide-eyed, the gangster couldn't even scream as The Joker approached slowly.

Sam looked up and witnessed first-hand how a human is skinned.

The Joker dropped the skin and gulped down the remaining pulp as his mouth stretched out like an anaconda. The Joker let a little burp and turned his black eyes towards Sam who was busy losing his sanity.

The Joker moved his face close to Sam's and he spoke as if he had just done the laundry: "Keep yer chin up, bucko! When the police arrives, tell them that yours truly is looking for The Bat. Allrighty? I knew I could count on you, bucko! Have fun in the loony bin!"

The Joker stepped back in to the shadows, merged with them and disappeared.

Sam pissed himself.

Arkham Asylum, 9.40 PM.

"I was expecting you.", said Dr. Hill, the current head of Arkham when a shadow in his office started moving towards him.

"What happened?", asked Batman.

"Horrible things...we bring this new prisoner in, put 'm with The Joker...lack of high-security prison cells you know...we lost the surveillance camera so we send a squad in. They were slaughtered. Just slaughtered...like some vile animal. Both the new one and The Joker are out. The freakiest of all is that one of the squad actually walked outta the cell and outta the asylum...a couple yards outside, we found what was left of him. Horrible...just horrible!"

The Doctor sighed as he gulped down a drink.

"Then how did they get out?"

"Well the remains of that guard were pretty much nothing but some pieces of skin..."

The Batman was surprised, much to his own surprise. This butchering wasn't The Joker's style and how did he manage to wear somebody else his skin?

"That new prisoner...tell me about him."

Dr. Hill sighed and poured another drink.

"Well, back in '85 the town Derry in Maine was destroyed by a storm. About 10 years later, they started rebuilding...don't know why it took them so long but anyways, the whole thing's rebuilt in three years. Then two years later, there were some people murdered...in ways so gruesome I skipped the details in the files. Anyway, it seemed that you've alway had these strange, sadistic killings in Derry so people are jumpy and there's heavy patrolling around the clock and a strict curfew. Ofcourse, on New Year's Eve, you have to make an exception but the mayor took his precautions and requested for more police assistance. Alot more. Then on a New Year's ball at the stroke of midnight, a part of the floor was breaking down. Apparently, the hall was built on the not so-sturdy remains of an old sewer. Naturally, the police are there within seconds and in the hall they saw a guest dressed as a clown throwing people in the opening of the old sewer. They shower him with bullets and he goes down. Now, in Derry's history the killings have always been linked to a man with the appearance of an old-fashioned clown,sometimes called as Pennywise The Dancing Clown. So they take no chances and they lock him up in this impenetrable iron box. Over time, the body within the box was decomposing. Quite natural ofcourse except for the music."

"Music?"

"Yeah, music coming out of the box. Cheery carnival music and sometimes there shone such a bright, white light out of it. Rumor has it that one guard looked at the light and went catatonic...anyway, so they don't trust it and they sent it over to us because we're accustomed to this type of deviancy. Although this goes further then deviancy, Batman. I have no words for this."

"Was there anything...physical in that box?"

Hill paused and looked at his empty glass. "No. Not even bones. Just darkness inside."

The Batman contemplated this and asked; "Do you think that that clown-thing and The Joker merged?"

The doctor's heart stopped for a second and dropped his glass that shattered on the floor. "Impossible! That...that would've been too grotesque...too terrifying too consider! That...THING and our most sadistic inmate! No!"

"Suppose that it is the case. How do we get them to separate them again?"

" I..I don't know. This is too much hocus-pocus. We believe in the use of science and psychology to understand our inmates."

"It didn't prevent this atrocity though."

"Yes but what will you...", Hill started. But The Bat was gone.

Inside the batmobile, a police call came through for "a very serious 187". Batman turned the wheel and drove towards the crime scene.

Commissioner Gordon stood at his car, swallowing an much-needed aspirin. A cape rattled.

"What have you got, Commissioner?"

"Three people dead and a fourth one who was wallowing in his own excrement...but the three victims were skinned...skinned."

"What did the survivor say?"

"He was rambling on about some pale, clown-like man who was swallowing the insides of his victims as a snake. This is damn spooky stuff. Does this have anything to do with the escape of The Joker?"

"And another one.", added Batman.

"Another one? Who?"

"It's a strange story...but from what I've heard he's even worse then The Joker."

"Are you saying that they made an alliance? My God..."

"Something like that."

"There's something else", said Gordon, "the survivor who's the husband of one of the victims said that the murderer was looking for you."

Batman stood silent for a while and then said: "I'll deal with this."

"Are you sure that you're willing to go up against this?"

"The main thing is to focus on The Joker and lock him up. I've done it before."

"Yeah, but back then there was no skinning and cannibalism involved."

"Don't remind me."

Both men turned around and went their ways.

But they were being watched by a pair of black eyes.

Batman got in the batmobile and sped off home to think things over. As he was driving, he felt a tingling sensation at his temples. But he shrugged it of, thinking that the recent events may have gotten to him.

But The Bat did not notice that the rear of his vehicle was darker then usual.

And something cackled.


	4. Chapter 4

The Batman raced through the countryside, illuminated by a full moon.

At the back of the batmobile, something dark crawled towards the front windshield and smashed it. Batman was caught off guard and lost control as the batmobile swerved of the road and rolled over until it stopped on its back in a deserted cornfield. Dazed and confused, Batman crawled out of the wreck. As he tried to clear his senses, he suddenly heared somebody laughing in a slow and ominous way.

"Ahahaa...Hahohaaa."

Batman looked around, trying to find the source of the laughter but the field was too dense and dark to see.

"Here Batsy, Batsy..."

He turned around and The Joker stood on the wreck, gazing upon him with those dead eyes.

"Misssssed meee?"

Batman jumped up to kick him but The Joker flipped over his head and before he could turn himself around, Batman received a punch and flew backwards into the corn. Batman scrambled to his feet and tried to use the density of the field to hide himself. "Damn," he thought "he nearly punched my head off...gotta hide and think." But The Bat didn't get far as something grabbed him from behind and threw him back into the open spot where he crashed. Batman jumped and threw several batwings at a wide angle but his enemy was nowhere to be seen.

"I/we waited so long for you, Bat-Man...Man-Bat...I/we expected more from you. You used to be such a worthy opponent.", mocked The Joker from the dark.

"Pennywise! Joker! Show yourself!", Batman shouted as he tensed up, ready for the attack.

The Joker flew from the dark directly at him but Batman shot a cable at the wrecked batmobile and flung himself towards The Joker where his fist connected with The Joker's face. The massive blow sent The Joker to the ground and Batman moved in for a kick but The Joker grabbed his leg and slammed him against the wreck. Still holding his leg, The Joker flung The Bat towards him for a bite but when The Bat got near, he threw a couple acid capsules into his mouth. The Joker let go and vomited blood when his adversary took advantage and kicked him into the chest and The Joker flew backwards. The Batman moved in to tie him up but The Joker jumped up, cut him accross the chest with his razor-sharp fingernails and kicked him back against the wreck. His mouth covered with his own blackish blood, The Joker approached him to make him suffer. Very slowly, as it should be.

"Now this is more like it, Bat. You're quite a feisty meal..."

The Joker did not see how his "meal" was lying near a long piece of metal from the wreck, hidden under his cape.

"Any last words, before I feast on your insides?"

"Feast on this!" and The Batman hit him with the metal piece, and again and again. Blood gushed from The Joker's head as he attempted to get near him. But then he got hold of the rod and threw The Bat towards the rear of his vehicle and he scrambled to get inside the cockpit.

"Trying to fly away, little Bat? No escape, my friend. No escape."

The Bat saw he had no other option and he activated the batmobile's dual machineguns. A blood-curling scream was heard as the machineguns pulverized The Joker's legs. He deactivated the guns, hoping that he could still save The Joker from his Demon. Batman got out and approached The Joker whose body was on the ground, contorting and screaming as an incapacitated animal.

"Fight it damnit! Your body is of no more use to Pennywise! Fight it!"

But then, for a brief moment, The Bat stared into those black eyes and saw the two Deadlights. His brain almost exploded with white, hot noise as Pennywise invaded him, wriggling his way inside his psyche. Batman convulsed, trying to hold off this evil thing. Then his convulsions stopped and The Dark Knight rose.

"Aww...Hell! My legs!...Fuck! What the hell happened!", stammered The Joker as he was trying to remain conscious.

The Bat approached, silently, slowly.

"Take me to the hospital Bats! Come on! Please!"

The Joker got no response as the two black eyes stared at him, those two black eyes in that black figure, a dark, mighty presence that seemed to dwarf the moon.

The Joker screamed only once and it was his last.


End file.
